Rutherford and Atomic Theory

Ernest Rutherford's Contributions to Atomic Theory

• Ernest Rutherford transformed atomic understanding by identifying atom components and inner structure
• He showed atoms disintegrate into smaller constituents and described gamma and beta radiation

Radiation Particles

• Rutherford published his discovery of alpha and beta radiation, along with element disintegration in 1899

Ultimate Award

• Rutherford won Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908, surprised at being recognized as a chemist

Atomic Structure

• Rutherford proposed the "Rutherford model" of the atom in 1911; electrons orbit a tiny nucleus

Splitting the Atom

• Rutherford discovered proton in 1919
• He transformed one element into another, showing the process of nuclear fission

Ernest Rutherford's Early Life and Career

• Born into a farming family in Brightwater, New Zealand
• He earned three science degrees at Canterbury College, which is now the University of Canterbury
• Studied at Cambridge University under J. J. Thomson with an overseas scholarship
• Thomson recommended him for a professorship in physics at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, at age 27

Rutherford's Nobel Prize Winning Research

• Rutherford conducted research in Montreal that won him the Nobel Prize
• He performed "investigations into the disintegration of the elements"
• He expanded upon Henri Becquerel's discovery of radioactivity, revealing that atoms are comprised of smaller parts
• Uranium radiation was studied and alpha and beta radiation were distinguished
• Alpha radiation consists of positively charged particles

First Transmutation

• Achieved using equipment and procedures developed by Rutherford's team that involved directing alpha particles at nitrogen atoms
• Collisions transformed nitrogen into oxygen
• Protons emitted, observed through a window in the device

Quote

• "I have broken the machine and touched the ghost of matter” quoted said by Ernest Rutherford in 1917

Alfred Wegener: Pioneer of Continental Drift

• Alfred Wegener was the first to propose a systematic theory of continental drift
• He was a metereologist and Arctic explorer
• He was an original thinker, amassing supporting evidence through research
• His ideas were not accepted until after his death

Wegener's Life and Career

• Wegener was born in Berlin, Germany and was the youngest of five children
• Wegener earned P.h.D in astronomy from Berlin University
• He switched to meteorology and worked at a meteorological station in Beeskow
• He and his brother Kurt pioneered using weather balloons to study air
• In 1906, he led an expedition to chart the northeast coast of Greenland and established the first meteorological station there
• He returned to Germany and became a professor of meteorology at Marburg University
• He began questioning the fixed shapes of continents and noticed coastline similarities
• His fourth expedition to Greenland in 1930 was his last, he died attempting to reach across ice

Wegener's Contributions and Achievements

• Wegener's research in 1911 uncovered fossil evidence supporting his continental drift theory
• The research showed connections between Africa and South America
• He published his theory in two papers in 1912 and lectures
• His impactful book, The Origin of Continents and Oceans, was published in 1915 with maps of how continents were previously joined
• Wegener was drafted into the German Army
• He was injured and released in 1914

Wegener's Academic Role

• He became a professor of meteorology and geophysics at Graz University, Austria, in 1924

Thomas Hunt Morgan: Pioneer in Genetics

• Thomas Hunt Morgan was a U.S. geneticist and zoologist
• He received a Nobel Prize for groundbreaking work on heredity
• His work built upon Gregor Mendel's work

Morgan's Milestones

• Morgan accepted a teaching position at Bryn Mawr in 1891 in experimental embryology and focused on differentiation
• Morgan moved to Columbia University in 1904
• He started a fruit fly breeding program in 1908
• He published a text in 1915 that described how heredity functions based on Mendelian laws
• Morgan became head of biology at Caltech in 1928
• He helped establish a marine biology research unit
• For his work on inherited characteristics he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933

Morgan's Early life and work

• Morgan was born in 1866 into a wealthy Kentucky family
• He was fascinated by the natural world from childhood
• At age 16, he attended the University of Kentucky
• He later studied sciences at Johns Hopkins

The Question of Inheritance

• In 1904, Morgan moved to Columbia University as a professor of experimental zoology
• Genetics did not exist in its modern form
• A Augustinian friar Gregor Mendel thought that "particles of inheritance" passed down between generations in 1866
• Morgan advanced this understanding in his work

The Fly Room

• Morgan bred millions of fruit flies in his laboratory for studying inheritance
• Fruit flies have a short lifespan and made them ideal for rapid research
• Because of their quick reproduction, they were the ideal study organisms
• Fruit flies also had a small number of large chromosomes to allow tracking of numerous traits

Jocelyn Bell Burnell and the Discovery of Pulsars

• Jocelyn Bell Burnell was the first scientist to discover the astrophysics of pulsars

Milestones

• In 1967 she observed a pulsar
• Hewish reported the discovery in Nature the following year
• In 1974 Her supervisor received the Nobel Prize for the discovery

Official recognition

• In 2007 Made Dame Commander of the British Empire for her services to astronomy

Jocelyn Bell Burnell Biography

• Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, her early life saw her develop an interest in science at boarding school
• She later earned PhD at Cambridge University supervised by Hewish
• In 1967, her radio telescope array found repeating pulses of radio emissions occurring about every 1.337 seconds
• The signals emanated from a pinpoint location in space for some time
• Bell and Hewish concluded that the signals emanated from a neutron star turning at an extremely high speed, that they termed a "pulsar".

Enquiries on Morgan Work with Fruit Flies

• Scientists, including German biologist Theodor Boveri, researched inheritance, however, the process remained unclear
• Morgan disfavored previous theories and preferred controlled laboratory experiments
• He bred millions of fruit flies, cross-breeding them and analyzing variations to understand heredity
• The results showed that when a white-eyed male fly was bred with a red-eyed female, all had red eyes
• The second-generation cross-bred flies revealed the pattern of the white-eyed trait passed on down the male line
• Muller, found that hereditary changes could be artificially induced via X-rays
• Morgan established a large laboratory at Columbia University, which greatly improved the method for identifying genes
• Muller investigated genetic mutations, and raised awareness about radiation dangers
• The experiments were performed for 12 years between 1920 and 1926 at the University of Texas
• His campaign urged for controls on nuclear weapons

Marie Curie and Radioactivity Research

• Marie Curie revolutionized the understanding of radioactivity
• She discovered new radioactive elements and laid radiotherapy foundations

Early Life and Education

• Born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw, Poland
• She studied in secret while working as a governess because of the lack of access to education at the time
• She later moved to Paris and earned degrees in the sciences
• She married Pierre Curie, a physicist, and together they formed a great science team

Discoveries and Contributions

• Marie and Pierre identified of two new radioactive elements (polonium and radium) during their work in 1898
• The discovery earned them the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics, which was also awarded to Henry Becquerel
• Pierre abandoned his personal work to join Marie

Impact and Legacy

• Created a new field of study, atomic physics, and coined the term "radioactivity" in 1898
• Marie earned the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903
• Worked with André-Louis Debierne to isolate radium and proved crucial for cancer treatment
• In 1911 Marie earned another Nobel Prize, making her the first person to be awarded two in Chemistry

Tim Berners-Lee and the WWW

• Tim Berners-Lee invented WWW and provided multimedia in 1991

Early Life and Career

• Berners-Lee was keen on computers and he earned his P.h.D at Oxford, writing his thesis on the second law of thermodynamics
• His parents worked at Ferranti
• During his time there, the world's first computer was developed

Key Milestones

• Writes ENQUIRE (1980)
• Submits "Information Management: A Proposal" (1989)
• Launches the World Wide Web (1991)
• Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II (2004)

ENQUIRE

• A program designed to store information and connect people and projects
• Showed people with computers could access documents
• This program was revolutionary because it demonstrated that documents across a growing network of interconnected computers (the internet) could be accessed by anyone with a computer

Patricia Bath, ophthalmologist

• Patricia Bath preventing blindness and is dedicated to the need to take care of underserved people
• Academic Career saw her become a surgery and ophthalmology professor at UCLA, one of the first women to be offered this position

Key Achievement

• First female at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute (1975)
• Community Ophthalmology (1976) saw establishment of an institute and treatment was offered which improved primary care for underserved people
• Laserphaco Probe (1986) saw the device patented and the probe developed as a laser technology
• First US woman to establish an ophthalmology residency training program (1983)
• Cornell Transplantation and Keratoprosthesis

Education and Training

• Earned M.D. at Howard University (1968)
• Residency at New York University & Columbia University in Ophthalmology

Patricia Bath Quote

• "To restore sight is the ultimate reward”